Photo of Cynthia Twohy
Image Courtesy of Cynthia Twohy

Dr. Cynthia Twohy

You can find me flying on the C-130 aircraft during VOCALS at all hours of the day and night! I will be catching droplets from clouds off the coast of Chile and seeing what's inside them. It's not just water…cloud droplets form on small particles in the atmosphere. These particles are the result of both natural processes, like salt from the breaking waves over the ocean, and human activity, like driving in your car. We're trying to learn which of these particles form cloud droplets and ice in the atmosphere, and how that affects cloud cover, rain and snow, and global climate change.

I got into this business because I was good at science and wanted to be an astronaut. For that, I needed a graduate degree as well as some flying experience! So I went to the University of Washington, where they had a research aircraft and I could do both. In my first research project, I was sampling stratus clouds of the coast of California. Now I am sampling them off the coast of Chile. In the meantime, I've been on thirty different projects flying all over the world including Australia, Bahrain, Costa Rica, and India. Not exactly an astronaut (NASA said my vision wasn't good enough), but this life is almost as interesting and probably more rewarding.

For ten years, I was a scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, and now I've landed back in the Pacific Northwest at Oregon State University. My husband and I grow grapes for wine, and when not traveling I enjoy horseback riding, gardening, and collecting antique books.

Last modified August 27, 2008 by Becca Hatheway.

You might also be interested in:

Cool It! Game

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Rhea George

Many students in atmospheric science were motivated to enter the field by some fascinating extreme weather event experienced as a child. This was not the case with me. When I was an undergraduate I was...more

Dr. Boris Dewitte

I'm a physical oceanographer interested in climate variability and especially the El Niño phenomenon. Other than the annual cyle of the seasons, El Niño is the largest pulsation of the climate. I'm interested...more

Dr. Paquita Zuidema

Hola! I am originally from the Netherlands and thereafter spent 3 years as a child in the Peruvian Andes, but I have lived most of my life in the United States. I received my bachelor's degree in physics...more

Lelia Hawkins

I am starting my fourth year of graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studying atmospheric chemistry and climate science. I love earth science and have always wanted to do something...more

Dr. Jeff Snider

I am a university professor involved in studies of the concentration and type of particles contained within clouds. It is important to know these things in order to say how often clouds produce precipitation...more

Dr. Chris Zappa

I am a specialist in ocean-atmosphere interactions. My interests include wave dynamics and wave breaking, the effect of near-surface turbulence on heat, gas, and momentum transport, airborne infrared...more

Jake Crouch

I am a graduate student studying meteorology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. I grew up in Beckley, WV and obtained my B.S. in meteorology from the University of North Carolina – Asheville....more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA